After Niagara Falls Tightrope Walk, Hope for a Boost in Tourism

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario — After 116 years, a man on a wire conquered the Niagara Gorge again.

Yet by Saturday morning, the wire had disappeared with the television trucks, leaving only vestiges on the American side — scaffolding, a bank of 15 portable toilets, a moving truck. And, local people hope, tourists.

“I’ve been a New Yorker for a long time, and I’ve always said I’d like to go,” said Lauri Halderman, 56, an exhibition director at the American Museum of Natural History, who was on her first trip to the falls. The tightrope walk “was the thing that pushed us over the edge to come,” she said, while acknowledging what was apparent to many visitors on both sides of the falls.

“The Canadian side is beautiful, the American side is a little on the hurting side, but it probably just needs more tourism dollars,” she said. “I would come back.”

Her son, Riley Pearsall, 15, chimed in, “Maybe in another decade.”

For a century, stunts like the tightrope walk have been banned and police officers have greeted barrel-riding daredevils with handcuffs. But when Nik Wallenda, a scion of wire-walking lore, emerged out of the thick and soupy mist midway through his walk on Friday night, hovering like a latter-day Moses, it was with the blessing of two cities looking for tourist dollars in a blighted economy, and a roar of approval from the 100,000 Canadians who could finally see him.

“This has been everything that I’ve worked for, for a long time,” a beaming Mr. Wallenda said at a news conference afterward, the falls roiling behind him. “And you know what? It’s as real as it gets now, isn’t it? There’s no turning back. It’s done, it’s official, it’s in the history books.”

For a day, at least, it left hope in Niagara Falls, N.Y., a city that has lost more than half its population. Midday Saturday, a hazy sky stretched over downtown Niagara. Visitors slowly streamed back to Old Falls Street, giving vendors time to catch their breath. At Viola’s Sub Shop, meat sizzled on the grill as a dozen members of the Tardibuono family prepped for the day. The talk was of Wallenda, Niagara and more Wallenda.

“It was and is phenomenal,” said Sarah Gregory, an owner of the 54-year-old sub shop, describing the boost the community received from the event. “People we used to see many years ago for the daredevil events came back for the first time in years.”

Photo

As he neared the finish, Nik Wallenda dropped to his knee and acknowledged the crowd.Credit
Marcus Yam for The New York Times

Some numbers: Mr. Wallenda is 33 years old, a seventh-generation acrobat who first tackled a tightrope at age 2. He crossed 1,800 feet of wire in a little over 25 minutes, ending just after 10:30 p.m. Friday, suspended 200 feet above the gorge and becoming the first person to walk directly over the falls. Five of his forebears have perished performing such stunts.

The spectators on Friday spread blankets and opened chairs and set cameras beside them. Vendors sold glow sticks and light-up Uncle Sam hats, while state park employees dressed in 19th-century costumes wound through the crowd — one dressed as Annie Edson Taylor, the falls’ first barrel jumper, and another as Maria Spelterini, who crossed the falls on a tightrope with peach baskets on her feet.

Just before 10 p.m., Mr. Wallenda rose on a platform. Dozens of gulls soared overhead. Downriver, a Ferris wheel spun, flashing white lights. As he stood above the dark, churning waters, thousands of eyes turned to him, waiting, while voices rose from the crowd below.

Mr. Wallenda lifted his arms, stretched and stared across the gorge. Destiny would have to wait for commercial breaks and a green light from ABC, which was televising the event. The crowd cheered until, suddenly, without warning, Mr. Wallenda hopped onto the wire. Beneath him, voices fell silent.

He steadied himself, tilting his 30-foot pole, pointing his toes like a ballerina with each nimble step. One, two, three, faster each time. As he progressed, the crowd began to murmur again. It was happening. The man was walking over water. Breath returned. Jokes were made. It looked so easy.

As he reached the end of his walk, he took a knee, pumped his fist toward the roaring Canadian crowd that packed a narrow park along the shore and ran the last few steps.

Afterward, he promised to follow up his exploit with a walk across the Grand Canyon in the next few years.

By midnight, work had just begun for Dan Hill, a 47-year-old lineman for the O’Connell Electric Company. He rode across the cable in a gondola collecting nine pendulums that dangled from the wire, helping to hold it steady, and took a last look at the falls. Then he helped wind the cable back to the American side, finishing just after the sun rose.

“The birds were chirping,” he said.

“He made history, you know? And that I got to be part of the crew that stretched the cable he walked on,” he added, “the memory of a lifetime.”

A version of this article appears in print on June 17, 2012, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: For Niagara Falls, a Hope for a Boost in Tourism After a Tightrope Walk. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe